farmdoc's blog post number 292

Here in Mole Creek, as summer swelters on and our daily raspberry count dwindles, the birds are more voracious. Most of our beaked raspberry-pinchers are black. I’m not clever enough to know if they’re crows. But if they are, I’ve had no urge to stone them. Until last Tuesday, when into my email in-box popped one from the Monthly magazine promoting its February issue. It told me: ‘In his summer holiday, Kevin Rudd wrote a 7700-word essay for the Monthly on the most serious issue of our times, the global financial crisis’. Reading that, I picked up a stone and scanned the horizon for crows. Surely the most serious issue of our times is global warning and climate change. It’s a lay down misere. Announced last Tuesday, Mr Rudd’s latest economy stimulus package includes free insulation for 2.7M Australian homes, and an increased solar hot water rebate from A$1,000 to A$1,600. The annual electricity saving’s equal to taking 1M cars of the road. And thousands of new, green jobs will be created. It’ll help insulate Australia from the global economic crisis, and the planet and the economy both win. So congratulations, Mr Rudd. Clearly the ‘most serious issue’ error wasn’t your doing. So I’ve put down my stone. And the crows, or whatever they are, that share our raspberries can continue on safely.